This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

OTTAWA—The idea of building a fence along the U.S.-Canada border has been officially ditched.

Instead, the United States’ new Northern Border Strategy looks to rely on more virtual eyes in the sky, boots on the ground and greater integration with Canadian law enforcement.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano released Tuesday the new blueprint, the first department-wide strategy for American policy and operations at the northern border.

The 20-page document foresees a far more fluid border — at least as far as law enforcement personnel and border guards go.

It says the U.S. will continue to rely on the “strategic deployment of technology” — radars, sensors, cameras posted on poles between ports of entry, drones in the sky, and vehicle scanners — as a “force multiplier” to deter and prevent terrorism and illicit activity on the border.

It flags “the next generation of integrated cross-border law enforcement,” such as a planned permanent extension of the joint vessel patrol pilot program — known as Shiprider — in shared waterways; the planned introduction of similar joint land operations; and efforts underway to eventually share biometric information collected through each country’s immigration visa application system.

It says the two countries must achieve the “interoperability” of Canadian and American border law enforcement agencies.

Different federal, state, provincial and tribal police forces still operate on different radio frequencies except in Integrated Border Enforcement Units (or IBET) operations dotted along the 49th parallel.

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN...

The U.S. document doesn’t cite a deadline but the Canadian government says it wants to “fully implement a bi-national radio interoperability system within three years.”

It acknowledges the unique reality of border communities, yet calls for “greater unity of effort” to boost security saying it wants to identify “opportunities to co-locate and integrate our assets and personnel with those in Canada” and offer “reciprocal opportunities to our colleagues.”

It calls for more intelligence and information sharing, and reveals the Department of Homeland Security has deployed a senior liaison officer to Canada’s immigration and citizenship (CIC) department who is providing “technical support” as Canada begins “collecting biometrics from temporary resident visa applicants in 2013.”

“This will ensure the interoperability of U.S. and Canadian biometric repositories in the event of future data sharing,” the document says, adding Canada’s immigration department is exploring how to use U.S. facilities abroad “to collect biometrics from visa applicants who are U.S.-based temporary residents.”

The border perimeter deal signed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama set the biometric data-sharing project in motion. The Canadian 2012 budget implementation act will authorize the collection abroad of biometric data from foreigners wanting to visit Canada, starting with high-risk areas.

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN...

A Conservative government official confirmed that Ottawa is looking at contracting out to Americans the collection of such data, saying the U.S. now operates many more privately operated overseas locations. By 2014, each country will be able to query the other’s database for biometric matches when conducting risk assessments, and to retain the data as long as warranted if there is a match. Otherwise data is to be destroyed, he said, just as if a visa applicant becomes a Canadian citizen, all biometric data would have to be deleted.

The U.S. promises it will protect the privacy of personal information but it is also clear that it believes better scanning and screening technologies will help speed the “legitimate flow of persons and cargo across the border by helping to identify and segment traffic into higher and lower risk.”

Get more of the Star in your inbox

Never miss the latest news from the Star. Sign up for our newsletters to get today's top stories, your favourite columnists and lots more in your inbox

As for more integration, the Conservative government budget implementation bill enacts a new law — the Integrated Cross-Border Law Enforcement Act — to allow Canada and the U.S. to go ahead with two planned “regularized” Shiprider maritime patrol operations by summer 2012, and an additional two teams by 2015-16.

The government also promises to increase integrated teams “in intelligence and criminal investigations” and “an intelligence-led uniformed presence between ports of entry.” It says two pilot teams “on land” will be in operation by this summer in high-risk areas along the border.

More News

Top Stories

More from The Star & Partners

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com